James Shields (1806-1879)

James Shields (10 May 1806-1 June 1879) was a US Senator from Illinois (D) from 27 October 1849 to 3 March 1855 (succeeding Sidney Breese and preceding Lyman Trumbull), from Minnesota from 11 May 1858 to 3 March 1859 (preceding Morton S. Wilkinson), and from Missouri from 27 January to 3 March 1879 (succeeding David H. Armstrong and preceding George Graham Vest). He was the only Senator to serve for three states.

Biography
James Shields was born in Altmore, County Tyrone, Ireland in 1806, and he emigrated to the United States in 1826. He was briefly a sailor, and he settled in Kaskaskia, Illinois, where he studied and practiced law. In 1836, he was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives as a Democrat, and he later served as State Auditor. His work as auditor was criticized by a young Abraham Lincoln, who published a series of inflammatory letters in a local paper; Shields challenged Lincoln to a duel, and the two nearly fought on 22 September 1842, but they made peace and eventually became friends. In 1845, Shields was elected to the Illinois Supreme Court, from which he resigned to become Commissioner of the General Land Office, and he served as a Brigadier-General of volunteers during the Mexican-American War. He served with distinction and was twice wounded, being shot in the lung. In 1848, he was appointed as the first Governor of the Oregon Territory, but he declined, and he served as a Senator from Illinois from 1849 to 1855. As Senator, Shields opposed slavery and supported land grants to agricultural colleges, to railroads, to soldiers, and to settlers under a homestead act. He later moved to Minnesota, where he founded the town of Shieldsville, and he served as Senator from 1858 to 1859. During the American Civil War, his troops from his 2nd Division of the V Corps, Army of the Potomac delivered Stonewall Jackson's sole defeat to him at the Battle of Kernstown in 1862. He resigned from his commission shortly thereafter due to a lack of promotion and a poor relationship with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, and he settled in Missouri, which he represented for three months in the Senate. He died in 1879.